Feud Alert: Prince Smacks Down Madonna and Maroon 5

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"Why do we need to hear another cover of a song someone else did? Art is about building a new foundation, not just laying something on top of what's already there," Prince said.

Updated at 12:06 PM CDT on Wednesday, Jan 23, 2013

His Purpleness isn't so hot for Madonna and Maroon 5.

In a wide-ranging interview in Billboard's latest issue, of which he graces the cover, Prince had some not-so kind words to say about his fellow performers.

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Talking about his contract with Warner Bros. Records--over which he was so upset at what he considered the company's botched promotion of his albums that he changed his name to a symbol for several years in protest--the 54-year-old music legend lashed out at the Material Girl, whom he blamed for taking up much of the label's focus at his expense.

"It was also about Madonna," Prince told the magazine (via Zap2it) regarding his decision to churn out a series of albums to fulfill his contractual obligation so he could declare his independence. "She was getting paid, but at the time we were selling more records and selling out concerts on multiple nights."

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As it happened, Madonna also sought freedom from the heavy hand of the music giant when she exited Warner, which had distributed her Maverick Records label for 15 years, for a lucrative deal with Live Nation in 2007.

But the Queen of Pop wasn't only one in Prince's bad books.

The mercurial Minneapolis musician also took a shot at Maroon 5 for covering his classic hit "Kiss." While Prince himself said he has no problem covering other bands' tunes in his concerts and paying the requisite royalty for doing so, he questioned the point of recording another artist's track for actual release.

"Why do we need to hear another cover of a song someone else did? Art is about building a new foundation, not just laying something on top of what's already there," he said.

Ouch. No word what Maroon 5, or Madonna for that matter, has to say about all of this.

As for the future of his own artistic endeavors, the artist formerly known as "The Artist formerly known as Prince" revealed, "I don't do albums anymore...I do songs."

No word when he'll be putting out new tracks. His last album was 2010's 20Ten. For now, Prince has been auditioning a new drummer in advance of a possible tour and is gearing up to accept the 2013 Icon Award at the Billboard Music Awards Ceremony happening in Las Vegas on May 19.